Persuasive Business Writing

Taking it Personally

 Business writing is often about persuading others – persuading them to buy, to invest, to be patient, or simply to have confidence in a product. 

In technical environments, writing assignments are also about persuasion, and the challenge is compounded by the complexity of the topics and the incredible rate of change that forces issues out into the open sometimes before they’re ready.  The rate of change in technology, a key driver of competition, infuses technical issues with human zeal beyond what one might expect from engineers (a profession not known for emotional high drama).

 Nonetheless, it is true:  High tech runs wild with impassioned believers who champion one technology or another.  The prospect of favoring one software product over another, one infrastructure product over another, means criticizing – directly or indirectly – the competition.  People take that personally.

 So how can you put forward a proposal, a report, an architectural design, or a tech strategy recommendation in writing that transcends the emotionalism and gets the points across?  While there’s no guaranteed formula for success, here are some suggestions that can help.

 Find a Rock to Stand on with Others

 If there’s a technology shift in your future, or the prospect of introducing some technical change, there must be a reason for doing so.  Whatever the objective of the change is should be called out explicitly in whatever is written.  If the goal is to retire old systems or move away from a failing technology to something newer and more reliable, then the objective – a stable, robust environment – is easy to “get behind.”  If the goal is to achieve cost savings by reducing the number of products in use, few people will argue that’s not a responsible thing to do, even if they disagree about the means to get there.

 Finding a shared objective is a good place to start.  Even if the goal is one set by upper management based on “the numbers” (a subject often of limited interest to true techies), the expectation is that all will rally to it.  Making that a premise of what you’ve written is an important point to make early on:  “This is why we’re doing it.”

 Once you’ve established, then put into words, exactly what the aim is of making a change, you can refer to it later, reminding readers how your recommendation meets the goal.

 Recognize Other Approaches

 It’s unlikely that your recommendation is the only approach on the market.  The number of products on the market today that solve just about any conceivable problem was unimaginable even a decade ago.  Even if you believe deeply in what you are recommending, you should acknowledge that there are alternatives, even viable alternatives, that are deserving of respect.

 Of course, if you don’t actually think there are workable alternatives, then don’t say there are.  Insincerity is easy to spot.  But – especially if you think you know that your readership is prepared to resist your suggestions because they already have this all figured out – acknowledge the merits of other approaches.  You’re showing you have a balanced view of the alternatives, and your assessment of the limitations will be more credible.

 Demonstrate Your Homework

 You wouldn’t be writing this recommendation (proposal, strategy, etc.) if you hadn’t done your research.  Accuracy counts, and it is even more important when entering controversial territory.  If there’s uncertainty about a product’s ability to handle volume, respond quickly, perform fail-over operations or handle sub-zero temperatures in field work, make sure you know the facts about these capabilities before you swear your allegiance to it. 

 There is no end of research material to assist technology professionals, not the least of which are the Gartner and Giga research databases, for which many companies have memberships that allow them access to the work of powerful, respected analysts.  If you don’t have the advantage of using this data, there’s always Google.  Besides the internet, there are also reference librarians at universities and industry journals that are available online.  So there’s really no excuse for under-researched reports.

 

Impartial, correct information can intercept an argument.

 

Provide a Balanced View

 No technology product is perfect, and everyone (except, perhaps, sales people) knows that.  Just as acknowledging the strengths of competing ideas makes your criticisms of them credible, so does acknowledging the weaknesses of your idea make your recommendation credible.

 

Acknowledge That You May Be Wrong

 Even if you’re head-over-heels in love with your design, recommendation or discovery, keep in mind that you may be wrong.  Technology is not an exact science.  What you’re sure of today could be called into question tomorrow.  For example, a complementary product, one which your design depends on, may suddenly announce an overhaul that calls into question its overall reliability. 

 

You can’t predict the future, even though you need to in order to be certain in this business.  As long as that is true, admit there’s a margin for error.  Executives, especially, don’t like to hear this.  They live for certainty, at least they need to appear so in order to perform their leadership function.  Still, recognizing that what you’ve written contains a margin for error is the responsible thing to do.  It also adds humility to your profile as a business writer.

 

Respect Your Readership

 While we’re on that point – No one likes to read a business document that reeks of over-confidence.  People who write don’t have all the answers.  They have questions they’re attempting to answer, and they’re serving up the product to an informed group of readers.

 There’s a certain intimacy in writing – business writing included – and readers can tell whether they’re respected.  They expect to be, as you do when you’re a reader.  Make sure they can sense that in all that you’ve written, and your messages will enjoy greater acceptance.

Engage: A Checklist

Before you open Powerpoint and go hunting for a design template, make sure you’ve taken time to “engage” with the presentation you’re about to create and deliver.  Here’s a short checklist of things to do:

Technical Presentations:  ENGAGE Checklist

_________________________________________________________________________

1.         Assess your audience.  Consider:

             Level of familiarity/domain expertise in your topic (How technical can you get?)

            Do they know you, your credentials?

            Pre-conceived notions (What are they thinking?)

            National culture

            Corporate culture

            Industry culture

            Learning Styles

 2.         Set your objective.  Consider:

             What’s your purpose?

            What do you want out of it?

            Better yet, what do they (your audience) want out of it?

            How will you know, when you’re done, that you’ve been successful?

 3.         Know your essence.  Create an elevator speech that answers these:

             What problem are you solving?

            Why is it a good use of your potential audience’s time to come and listen to you?

Beginning with the End in View

Attention and Retention

Next time you attend a presentation or a meeting, take a moment to look back on it a few days afterwards.  What do you remember?  How much of the actual information the presenter presented is still with you?  How many of the PowerPoint slides did you internalize?  Were there snacks at the session?  Did he tell a story or include a moment of humor you can recall?  Can you re-state the net message(s) of the session?

You’ll probably find you remember some things—blueberry muffins, criticism of the vendor’s technical support staff, a cheat sheet you took with you and put somewhere you hope you can find.  But as days pass, you remember fewer and fewer.  If it was a knowledge transfer session and you need to act on what you learned, you’ll probably turn to documentation to supplement your memory of the occasion, and you may be calling the presenter to ask questions along the way.  But if it’s not something that requires you to act at a detailed level based on what you heard (and maybe even if it is!), you’ll find you carry around an impression, a single thought or action item based on what you heard.

As you set expectations about what your own presentation needs to accomplish to be successful, it’s important to keep that in mind.  You, as the presenter, will remember the most about what you said.  For your audience, you and your information will become harder to recall clearly as the days pass.  You know that from your own experience as an audience member.  So, given that, what do you really need your audience to know, remember and act on?

 Objectives: Where Are You Going?

When you approach an assignment to do a presentation, or set out to run a meeting, first consider what you want out of it.  Ask yourself what you want to have happen as a result of your presentation.

This is an important step—before you ever open up PowerPoint or jot down a single idea is this—Think ahead to the outcome.  What will it mean to be successful?  What will your audience think, feel, know, do after you’re done?

 Answer this question:

            How will you know, once you’re done talking, that you’ve been successful?

  You might be thinking, “Because it’s over!”  “Hurray!  I get to sit down!”

 But let’s look for a better answer, something more like “Because the audience gets it!  They learned something!”  Or perhaps “Because they committed to take the action I wanted them to!”

You want them to do something, to be different in some way, because of what you’ve said, done and shown them.  What’s important for you to think about is just how you want them to be transformed by the experience.

You might even want them to be moved by it.

If you’re wondering how a technical presentation can be “moving,” consider that you might be trying to scare up enthusiasm for some product enhancement or a new idea.  You’d want people to get excited.

 A Moving Experience

At the end of the last century, I was the Y2K Project Director for a large retail company.  In 1998, one of my primary jobs was to talk to people in leadership positions about the work we needed to do within our homegrown software to make it ready to handle the properly formatted dates.  I made dozens of presentations, showing off the abundance of two-digit years we’d found throughout our proprietary application code and talking about the potential impact if we were unprepared.  (You’ll recall the common practice among programmers had been for decades to assume the “19” in front of the year and simply reference 89 or 90 instead of 1989 or 1990.  That was about to be a significant problem if we didn’t fix it.)

My presentations, in service to the about-to-be-launched Y2K project, was to get people worried, to move them to action.  I wanted them to see the issue, internalize the problem, take a deep breath and assign the highest priority—and appropriate funding—to fixing it.  These were technical presentations where I hoped for an emotionally charged outcome.  I wanted my audience to be moved to action!                                                                                                                    

(By the way, they were.  The project was launched and the necessary repairs were made and the happy ending was that our systems successfully crossed over into the next century.)

What are other occasions where technical presentations might stir people up or enlist their emotions?  How about persuading others to adopt a controversial design?  How about recommending an unpopular or expensive product as an addition to the company’s standards?  Or what if you want to rush to market with a product enhancement that’s not fully tested because you think it’s good enough and you don’t want to lose out to the competition?  

These are all emotionally-charged circumstances, and the best presentations bring people to action and are essential to decision-making.

 Aligning the Objective                                                                              

 Your objective doesn’t need to be a secret from your audience, and in fact it shouldn’t be.  Tell them what you want out of the occasion.

“We’ll announce the results of our product evaluation, and I’m hoping before we’re through today that you’ll be thoroughly convinced we’ve made the right choice.”

In many cases, it’s also a good idea at the outset to ask your audience about their objectives—what they want out of the session.  This is especially true in meeting settings, also in instructional situations. 

“I’d like to go around the room quickly and ask you to tell me what you want out of today, especially if there are key areas you came to learn more about.”  Then, when no one speaks up (which is likely), pick on someone.

“How about you?  Anything in particular you came to learn?”

That’s often enough to encourage people to speak out if they were reluctant.  But if it’s not, be prepared to prime the pump.

“Does anyone have any concerns about the set of requirements we used to evaluate this product?”

If the answer is yes, add to your objectives for the presentation that you will allay fears about the inadequacy of the requirements used—or whatever other concerns were mentioned. 

You could be more detailed about your objective, especially in a situation where knowledge transfer is the goal and where people in attendance are expected to act on detailed information afterwards.

“I’m here today to talk to you about our new design for the remote handheld devices our field reps will be using.  I plan to cover a little about the hardware basics and then focus mostly on the details of integrating this product with our other key systems.  We’ll discuss the specific message types we’ll use, the attributes of those messages, the various security levels for each message type, and the performance expectations.

“Before we begin, I would like to hear from you if that sounds about right.  Are there other areas we should go over today?”

If a hush falls over the room, it will be tempting to assume that means “no” and move on, as you think to yourself “Whew, no surprises!”  But probe a little deeper.

“Really?  You mean what I planned to talk about is exactly what you came to hear about?  How lucky can I get!  But seriously, if there’s anything more, by all means let me know,” and then someone may indeed speak up.  If not, at least you’ve said you’re open to deviating from the plan, at least somewhat, and you may get the opportunity to add to your objective on the fly.

Asking your audience what they came for will also add to your own sense of well-being about the occasion because you’ll get validation that what you’ve planned to say is hitting the mark.  Frankly, that’s usually what happens (unless you’re woefully unprepared).

Of course, some of them may tell you that what they’re after is something you hadn’t planned to talk about.  If that doesn’t sound like your idea of fun, just keep in mind that your expertise in your material is your best ally.  Remember:  You’re a subject matter expert.  You will be able to add a few points about the additional material. So don’t panic if someone in your audience augments your original plan.  You’ll be able to respond because you know your stuff.

If the additional topic someone has asked about seems far afield from what you were planning to say, you can ask the rest of the room whether that’s a topic they’re interested in, too.  If they say “yes,” and you’re not prepared to do a full explanation of whatever it is, you may need to set up a subsequent session or provide additional reference materials.

These practices strengthen your presentation and help ensure that your audience is getting what they came for which, as we’ll discuss in a minute, is really the whole point.

Know Your Heading, Keep Your Head     

We’ve spent a few pages discussing this phenomenon of beginning with the end in mind.  But it really shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to set your course.  Doing so up front not only makes sure you know when you’ve achieved some measure of success but will also help you organize your content and develop your materials.

Keep your objective in mind as you develop your content and materials, as you practice what you’re going to say, and as you deliver it live and in person.  If you ever get lost in your material, as you’re developing it or even as you’re delivering it, knowing your heading—i.e., what outcome you want from the presentation—will help you recover.

Meanwhile, just keep in mind this is a step you don’t want to skip.  Setting an objective is the only way to know you’ve achieved it.

 

ENGAGE:  Beginning With the End in Mind

            Often, we just dig in and start writing and creating furiously without really stopping to think about the desired outcome.  But there is one, something you as the presenter want out of the presentation.  Before you begin, find it, know where you want to be when you’re done. 

Presentations are a lot of work.  For some, they’re a lot of anxious work.  You wouldn’t want to spend all that energy and creativity and not know, when you’re done, whether you got where you were going, would you?

Presenting Webinars

          Always ready and willing to cut costs, organizations have a healthy and (so far) unsatisfied appetite for effective ways to make presentations to geographically far-flung groups using technology.  Gathering around a conference phone, with the handy “mute” button ready at any moment to conceal a sneering side comment, is a popular method.  It’s cheap, easy to use and readily available.  And it’s somewhat effective, if for no other reason than many of us are used to it, so even if it’s only adequate, at least we’re not uncomfortable in its presence.

 

 

          Then there’s video conferencing, which costs more, requires more set-up, and comes with its own set of pitfalls.  I’ll always remember a meeting I attended that used video conferencing to bring us together with several executives from our parent company in the U.K.  The U.K. execs sat together with their backs to a window, which was covered in only a sheer drape, allowing full light into the room directly behind them.  There the execs sat, shoulder to shoulder, silhouettes against the sheer drape in what appeared to be identical suits, like a row of dark, featureless cut-outs.  It was impossible to tell who was speaking, in part because their accents were somewhat indistinguishable from one another and in part because no one seemed to be moving.  The video part of this conference was a disaster.  Humorous, perhaps, but not effective.  

   

 

 

          Truth is, nothing beats “in person” when it comes to connecting a message to an audience, but it’s often the case that the cost of “in person” is too high.  So we keep looking for other ways.  Lately, webinars have gained in popularity, in part because they’re not very expensive, the software used to conduct a webinar is easy to operate, and there’s a visual component that doesn’t require Hollywood-level film directing credentials to successfully produce.  It’s especially useful for knowledge transfer, as the ever-popular PowerPoint slides are easy to display to everyone in the audience while the instructor is talking.  The audience can ask questions throughout, and the instructor can set up quiz (or polling) questions.  

   

 

 

          That said, webinar-ing has its dangers, as do most things that seem too cheap and easy to be true.  Not the least of which is that some presenters approach webinars too informally, starting late, ending late, imparting with lifeless delivery, talking too fast or bumbling along through mistakes that a rehearsal could have prevented.   

 

          If you’ll be presenting using webinar technology, here are a few recommendations you should not ignore:  

 

1.  Practice, practice, practice.  Even though you can’t see your audience, you still need to be able to respond to them (to questions, interruptions) and to react to whatever may happen.  This is technology, after all, and no matter how proven it is, it can still surprise you.  An un-rehearsed presenter who falls apart while trying to respond to technical difficulties is annoying, and it can be avoided.  It is no less important to practice a webinar (several times) than it is to practice a live presentation. 

 

 

2.  Start on time.  Be plugged in, wired up, and just sitting there waiting at least 10 minutes before the start time.  If you’re hosting a guest or two, make sure he or she arrives 30 minutes early to wherever it is he or she is broadcasting from.  Don’t wait for “more people” to sign on.  Respect those who arrived when you asked them to, and get going.

 

 

3.  End early.  Or at least never end late.  Everyone appreciates getting a couple of minutes back, and they’ll thank you (at least privately, to themselves) if you end early.  This will also force you to practice so you know how long it takes and what you might need to cut in order to end early.

 

 

4.  Two voices are better than one.  A man and a woman are best because it’s easy to tell them apart by the difference in their voices.  Two people can banter.  One person cannot (or better not; the idea of one person bantering is amusing but not especially professional).  Three people can get confusing.  

 

 

5.  Never let on how many people are in attendance at the webinar.  Marketers know this instinctively, but even if you’re not marketing (and I’m assuming you’re not), interest will be higher if your audience thinks they’re part of a big group, not a small one.

 

 

6.  Use polling questions to liven things up.  They’ll also help you get an idea who’s in your audience.  Let’s say you’re doing a teaching a class to a company-internal audience about changes to your project management methodology.  Your polling question might ask “How many of you are project managers using the methodology today?”  Or “How familiar are you with our current methodology?” and then multiple choice answers like “I’ve never used it,” “I read it once,” and “I know it as well as I know my own mother.”  (Humor never hurts.)

 

 

7.  Use your liveliest voice.  It’s easy to go drab when there are no smiling faces shining up at you to perk you up or make you nervous.  You’ll have to be sure you have some spark in your voice (a good thing to practice!).

 

 

8.  Last but not least, never tip off your audience that you’re getting close to the end when you are getting close to the end.  When you say “Thank you for attending” (or some equivalent), make sure you have nothing important to say after that.  Many in your audience will sign off (literally) as soon as they hear anything that sounds like “this is the end.”

 

 

          Webinars are a reasonable and often less expensive alternative to in-person meetings presentation sessions, and they certainly have many advantages over dreadful video conferences.  But there’s quite the onus on the presenter in charge.  If you’re willing to take steps to put on an interesting show, your audience will not only get the benefit of what you have to say but also be grateful for the convenience the technology offers.

As Things Get Worse – Part 2: Proposal for a New Business Paradigm

          We could just wait and see what happens.  Maybe confidence, diligence and patience are enough to power our economic resurgence.  Part of me hopes that’s true because it’s scary to think we might be heading into a future that’s remarkably different from our past.

          Maybe, before any real recovery begins, there are some fundamental changes that need to be made, changes deeper than creating jobs or enabling credit to flow between banks and consumers.  These would be changes to how and why we do business in this country.  Changes like these:

Move the Horizon

          Thanks to Wall Street’s lack of imagination, business’s intense focus on maximizing quarterly profits has driven it into tail-chasing mode.  There’s little attention to planning a future that might not exist after you’ve had a couple of bad quarters.

          We are preoccupied with the price of a company’s stock, and we watch it minute by minute (especially these days).  That means shortchanging the future to inflate the present, a practice that’s still very much in vogue.

          Let’s re-set our expectations about the lifespan of a business.  Why, for example, must all new business ventures have an “exit plan”?  What’s wrong with a business staying in business?

Put Profit in Its Place

          We need a capitalist, market-driven system to sustain us, but we’re forgetting that for many decades our healthy economy was fueled by ideas and innovation first and a desire to be profitable second. 

A decade ago, James Collins and Jerry Porras published the results of their five-year study of very successful companies in Built to Last:  Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.  They examined a long list of prominent companies, those with outstanding reputations who had enjoyed exceptional prosperity.  They wanted to understand what it is that distinguishes those companies from others who are simply survivors. 

          In every case, they found that successful, lasting companies do not consider “maximizing profits” to be their dominant driving force.  Instead, enduring, prosperous companies operate from a core ideology—a “purpose beyond profit”—that guides their actions and achievement.  Businesses that thrive believe, then, that profit is not the prime directive.

          Or, as Charles Handy says in his article Harvard Business Review article “What’s a Business For?”:  “The purpose of business, in other words, is not to make a profit, full stop.  It is to make a profit so that the business can do something more of better…the real justification for the business.”

Work With Purpose

          We should restore the perspective—that purpose beyond profit must exist— not only because it appears to be a proven formula for success, but also because it’d be nice to go to work each day with some energy and excitement for the work itself. 

Leaders often wonder how to “motivate” their employees.  The answer is right under their noses.  “Missions motivate, dollars don’t,” former Medtronic CEO Bill George says in his book Authentic Leadership. 

Measure Something Else

          “Can’t measure it?  Can’t manage it.”  I wish I had a free latte for every time I’ve heard that.   I don’t actually believe it.  There are all kinds of things you can manage that you can’t measure.  Your behavior, for one.  But I digress.

          What gets attention in business is what’s measurable.  We’re always watching the numbers.  Revenue.  Expense.  Customer sat.  If Wall Street doesn’t like what it sees, there will be hell to pay.

“The numbers” reflect two values: 

Did we do whatever it is we do as cheaply as we could? 

Did we charge as much for it as the market would allow?

          But couldn’t we apply some additional, more robust values?  Let’s ask:  What good have we done?  How many people have been fed, cured, instructed, housed?  How much collaboration have we fostered?  A “Community Value Index,” perhaps. 

          If we measure it, we’ll manage to it. 

Business Re-Design

          As Dr. Richard Farson says in his new book The Power of Design, we love to reduce complex situations to the level of problem.  Problems have solutions.  Find the solution, fix the problem.  But most situations we really struggle with, including the economic calamity we’re now witnessing, aren’t problems.  They’re predicaments.  Predicaments have many dimensions; they are layers deep, and they’re dense, ambiguous, intricate.

          Working our way out of predicaments requires systemic thinking, examining the design that underpins the operation.  In the case of commerce and economics, I think we at least need these four changes (i.e., move the horizon, put profit in its place, work with purpose, and measure something else).  And probably much more.

The One and Only Way to Become a Better Writer

             When I point out to students in my engineering communication class that learning to be a better writer requires reading, they remind me they do read a lot.  They read documents, specifications, product notes and organizational blurbs, most of them written by engineers or tech writers.

 

            But if you want to learn to write well, you’ll learn more by reading the works of great writers, rather than the works of great engineers.

 

            I point out, too, that becoming a better writer requires practice.  You can’t learn to write if you don’t write.  Then they remind me they do write a lot.

 

            “Do you know how many emails I wrote this week alone?” one student asked me.

 

            “How many did you revise?” I asked.

 

            “Why would I revise them?”

 

            Why indeed.  If you get no feedback (guidance, corrections, recommendations), then I guess you wouldn’t.

 

            Becoming a better business writer (or a better any kind of writer) requires practice and instruction and—although businesses impatient to improve “communication skills” won’t want to hear this—that takes time.

 

            You can’t learn to write better if you don’t revise.  You can’t learn to write better if you don’t read.  And doing either one in a vacuum won’t help you. 

 

            If you really want to become a better writer—if you want to look forward to writing rather than dread it, if you want to create written works people look forward to reading, if you want your written work to get action rather than get filed—take a class.  Not a one-day “seminar” where an instructor lets you have it about remembering your audience, outlining your thoughts and using correct punctuation, all in the space of seven intense hours of rapid-fire instruction.  That may fulfill your professional development plan (“I need 8 hours of writing instruction this fiscal year”) but it’s no way to learn to write. 

          Take time to read, write and revise.  Find someone (an instructor, a trusted colleague) who writes well who can point out ways to make improvements.  That’s the only way to become a better writer.

 

 

 

 

Bridging the Geek Gap: Speaking and Writing for Engineers and High Tech

            The other day, I gave a presentation to the National Speakers Association of Oregon about what “geeks” are like.  I was hoping to help them better reach an audience of technical professionals, to be credible and prepared.

 

            What are engineers and high tech professionals like?  Of course we shouldn’t stereotype, but there are some characteristics common to many technical professionals that will help us better manage teams, better present to groups and better write for audiences of “geeks.”  So here goes. 

 

            Technical professionals like certainty.  “It’s all a math problem down there somewhere,” they think, “and so help me if it takes me all week or all year, I’ll figure it out.”  Some are even quite ardent about the truth, openly promoting what they know to be right what they know to be right.

 

            They’re often subject matter experts, and their knowledge of a subject area may run very deep.  After all, what’s the highest echelon thing one can be in high tech?  A “guru”!  Now that’s subject matter expertise!

 

            They don’t care for politics, and by that I don’t mean national politics (but perhaps that, also).  I mean office politics—e.g., figuring out how people are going to react to something, anticipating those reactions, and acting accordingly.  That’s mostly what politics is—gauging how someone is likely to react and adjusting for that reaction.  No, technical professionals, by and large, think the truth speaks for itself.  “Like it or leave it, the truth is what it is, and reactions are irrelevant.”

 

            In his book Leading Geeks, Paul Glen points out that technical professionals see things largely in terms of problems and solutions.  Find the problem, apply the solution and move on.  That approach is the foundation of their success in “geekwork” (a term Glen uses in his book), so they like to apply it to all areas of life. 

 

            They dislike marketing.  One engineer in one of my classes said once, “Engineering is rocket science; marketing is rock and roll.”  I think that about sums it up.

 

            They can be quite patient with complexity, if the topic interests them, and quite impatient with anything that’s too simple. 

 

            If you’re thinking that all makes them a challenging audience, in some ways you’re right.

 

            So take heart.  Here are some geek qualities that will make you happy to have them in your audience.

 

            They’re often lifelong learners.  In part they have to be, since their industry changes rapidly and falling behind isn’t an option.  In part, they’re like that, unashamed to read, think, argue, figure out in many aspects of life.

            They’re creative.  If you see life in terms of problems and solutions, this implies that you figure out both.  Give a geek a problem to unravel, and watch his (or her) eyes light up.  Better yet, present him (or her) with a solution that leads to yet another problem.  The promise of discovery, indeed.

 

            In this era, they’re often multi-cultural.  Manufacturing and high tech:  two areas where globalization took hold early and holds on tight.  Many languages, many cultures.  It’s rich in expectation, sometimes misunderstanding, and certainly growth for anyone who is writing for them or presenting live to them.

 

            A few cautions:  If you don’t want to turn off an engineering/high tech audience, be sure you aren’t:

 

            1.         Too chipper.  Energy is good, but too much cheer is frowned on.

2.         Too general.  If you’re telling this audience something, get to it, and make it practical, something they can make use of now or tomorrow.

3.         Too “promo.”  We’re all on the listen these days for marketing.  Any speech or document that suddenly starts to look or sound like “buy this” is suspect.

4.         Too soft.  By all means, if you want to damage your standing with a geek audience, tell them you’ve come to talk about “soft skills.”  They’ll write you off then and there.

 

I’ve observed, too, that it takes awhile for an audience of engineers to warm up.  I assume this is because they’re used to listening to presentations that are flat, lifeless, dull, so they’re prepared for anyone’s presentation to be about the same.  Give it time.  If you’re credible, well-researched, helpful and energetic, they’ll cheer up!

“Training” Doesn’t Work

Once you’re in a job, going to “training” is cool.  The more classes you get to attend, the more it means management likes you.  They want to develop you.  They want you to be a better writer, learn to supervise, serve customers, or improve your interpersonal “skills.”  They want you to deliver better performance reviews, delegate effectively, set winning strategies, sell, persuade, succeed. 

 

The one-day workshop (or three days, even a week) is a popular format for this kind of training.  It’s a short-term commitment, convenient and quick.  Employees are back in the office before you know it. 

 

But does anyone really think you can learn to lead, write, strategize or sell in a day?  Even a week?  Can you learn to be a better business writer in a day or two or three?  Do managers learn to manage from those who teach “management” in training classes?  Do leaders learn to lead by executing on a 5-step program?

 

If the point of “professional development” is to be able to say “Our employees attended 1000 hours of training this year,” then the workshop format is just right.  But if the goal is to be able to say “We’re setting better strategy, getting better buy-in, working together better in teams,” then something other than a day or two away from the office is needed.

 

Education requires two things that training workshops don’t permit:  Time (time to learn, practice, process or challenge an idea, time to adjust, incorporate the news, knowledge, even the tips and techniques) and community (others with whom, over time, you discuss, grow, adjust, incorporate, challenge, practice).

 

So let’s talk about “communication training” for a moment, e.g., those workshops in business writing and public speaking where everyone gets together for a day or two and has, perhaps, a really good time, learns a fact or two but leaves there with just about the same writing and public speaking ability they came in with.  The company spends money.  The employees get hours of training.  But are the employees different afterwards?  Is their writing sturdier and more interesting?  Are their PowerPoint slides leaner and cleaner?  Are they enunciating well, handling questions better, connecting with their audiences as never before?

 

Doubt it.

 

I say this as someone who has been teaching workshops for a few years, and I now know they rarely result in better informed, stronger, more resilient or insightful leaders, managers or communicators.  That’s why I’m no longer teaching them.

 

Education needs time and community.  Interaction and exchange.  Education is growth and, just like physical growth when we were younger, we didn’t grow taller overnight.  Nor do we mature, make lasting change, realign our assumptions, or master our impulses overnight.  Or in a training workshop.

 

Inspiration from Grasshoppers

           

Did you know that male grasshoppers are capable of saying six different things?  According to linguist Jean Aitchison, male grasshoppers can say:

 

            I’m happy

            I want to mate

            This is my territory

            This is my woman

            Let’s mate

            Gee, mating was nice

 

            Who knew there was such variety in what grasshoppers have to say?  But, while that may seem like a surprising repertoire, those are also the only things they ever say.  “I’m happy, let’s mate, this is mine…” etc.  That’s it.  The same six declarations over and over again.

 

            We, on the other hand, have no such restrictions.  We can say whatever we want.  Linguists call that “creativity” in language, our ability to say all kinds of things, things that have never been said before.  It sets us apart from animals.

 

            But then we come to business writing (or business presentations) where, for some reason, we’re quite content with repetition and predictability.  In documents, we reach for boilerplate language, which has been scrubbed and approved by committee, to describe projects or operations that are, in fact, much more interesting than the canned language would lead anyone to believe. 

 

            You can be creative with language.  You can move beyond six phrases, or even 600 phrases, or 6,000 phrases, and you can say something that has never been said before.  Not only that, but you can be understood when you say something brand new.  It’s a remarkable thing about language among humans, that it works this way.

 

            Don’t settle for the same-old-same-old when it comes to business writing or presentations.  Be fresh.  Find a new word for a familiar idea.  Turn it up.  Be funny.  Put canned language back in the can, and try saying it yourself, without falling back on tired words and phrases. 

 

You have the advantage here.  You’re not a grasshopper.

 

Short Runway, Long Message

            Ever read a project plan, proposal, report or even an email that made no impression on you whatsoever?  That left you saying, “Yeah, and …?”  Ever wonder if what you write leaves people who read it asking the same thing?

 

            Here’s why that happens:  The writer has no idea what he (or she) wants the reader to remember.  He just starts writing, getting it all out there, whatever he can think of and, when he runs out of things to say, hits SEND.

 

            If that seems like an expeditious approach to you, you probably haven’t considered the consequences.  For example, you want action on what you’ve written, but you get none because your readers were left wondering what, if anything, to remember and act on.  Or you do get some action, but it’s not what you wanted to have happen because your written material was misunderstood.  Or people reply to what you’ve written with questions you now get to spend time answering.

 

            Organize what you have to say so that you know the few key points you really want to leave them with.  Start with those.  Support key points with details (facts, observations, background, references).  Imagine arranging your material with an important idea on top, then cascading downward to ideas that are less and less important for your reader to remember.

 

            Let’s say you were going to announce a process change for your department.  There are lots of things you could think of to say about the change:

 

- Why it’s needed

- Why the old way was bad

- How much time or money can be saved by doing it the new way

- When the process takes effect

- What the new process is

- How hopeful you are that people will be enthusiastic about the new process.

 

It’s unlikely everyone who reads your new process description will remember everything you have to say about it.  In fact, it’s almost guaranteed they’ll forget something.  So decide what it is they must remember, what’s most important, next most important, next most important and so on, and organize your writing that way.  Assume they’ll stop reading somewhere, or at least that they’ll stop remembering.

 

Here’s how I’d do it:

 

1.  NEW PROCESS IS COMING, AND THIS IS IT (describe process)

2.  The new process takes effect on (date)

3.  Why a new process is needed

4.  How much time/money can be saved this way

 

5.  Why the old way was bad.

6.  Hope everyone is onboard.

 

In other words, assume you have always have a shorter runway than your full message needs to get off the ground.  Decide what you’re going to offload, and arrange accordingly.